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Abstract: An inventory of all aquatic invertebrates of the Estuary and the eastern part of the Bay of Seine (Normandy, France) was performed and integrated in a free-of-charge georeferenced database named CISA (Catalogue of the Invertebrates in Seine-Aval, e.g., the downstream part of the Seine from the Poses dam to the sea). One thousand four hundred eighty-five taxa of aquatic invertebrates, out of which 5% were never identified at the species level, were recorded. This inventory has been analyzed in comparison with observation efforts carried out in this zone since two centuries, by distinguishing the first inventories of the end of the 19th century, the publications of the regional naturalist societies, the scientific publications, and the grey literature, such as the scientific reports and the university works with limited diffusion. It appears that the regional naturalist societies have played an essential role for the knowledge of the biological diversity before World War II; since then, reports and university works mention approximately half of the new species for the region. Less than one quarter of these descriptions was thus the subject of a publication without restricted diffusion. Biological diversity was thus underestimated for a long time for the eastern part of the Bay and the Estuary of the Seine River. These data show that the distribution of invertebrate species in the estuary of the Seine follows a two-ecocline model. To cite this article: T. Ruellet, J.-C. Dauvin, C. R. Biologies 331 (2008). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]